Ros Barber - The Value of Uncertainty

Stratfordians are certain that William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon wrote the works attributed to him. Most non-Stratfordians are equally certain that he didn’t. This talk explores the benefits of uncertainty. Uncertainty not only allows us to be collegial, reducing the likelihood of stressful and energy-sapping personal battles, but by opening our minds to evidence and counter-arguments which undermine our position it allows us to discard weak arguments and concentrate on those which extend and deepen the challenge to orthodox thinking. Perhaps counter-intuitively, uncertainty also offers non-Stratfordians the possibility of gaining academic legitimacy for the Shakespeare authorship question. Using concrete examples of arguments and counter-arguments derived from researching and writing "Shakespeare: The Evidence," this talk demonstrates why the apparently ‘weak’ position of uncertainty is actually the strongest, most beneficial position a non-Stratfordian can adopt.
This talk was presented on September 25, 2015, at the SOF Annual Conference in Ashland, Oregon.
Ros Barber, PhD is a Lecturer in Creative and Life Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London, and author of the award-winning verse novel, The Marlowe Papers (2012), Shakespeare: The Evidence (2013), and Devotion (2015). She is the editor and co-author of 30-Second Shakespeare (2015). Her most recent publications include two articles in Notes & Queries and she has a forthcoming article in a special ‘Shakespeare’ edition of the Journal of Early Modern Studies. She is director of research of the Shakespearean Authorship Trust (London).
See:
”Shakespeare’s ‘Honey-stalks’ “N&Q 2015 62/1 92-93
intl-nq.oxfordjournals.org/con...
and
“Bardolph and Poins” N&Q 2015 62/1 104-107
nq.oxfordjournals.org/content/...
Resources: SAT www.shakespeareanauthorshiptru...
Website: rosbarber.com
For more on the Shakespeare Authorship Question, visit ShakespeareOxfordFellowship.org.

[@ginawiggles918]

Having watched these SOF lectures many times I have gained a great deal of admiration for Ros. With so much fascinating information coming to light debunking the Shakespeare myth, closed-minded Stratfordians are being left standing in the dust looking rather like 13 year old children clinging tenaciously to their belief in Santa Claus. g.w. 26 Oct 2019

[@Poeme340]

Thank you for your rationality!

[@josevector]

Fantastic

[@synergy503]

It's interesting...academics must be reminded to use logic, reason, and even how to think correctly. Should all advanced degrees be required to study and pass logical reasoning curricula?

[@jayare2620]

The truth is ever true.

[@3dcpsolutions381]

Keeping an open mind and evaluating evidence should be the foundation of learning, research and studies. But tell that to the Stratford Cult and they will disagree when it comes to Shakespeare.

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

I'm that guy who thinks it possible that Bacon was Marlowe then after faking that death to avoid fatal entanglement, became the BARD

[@ExxylcrothEagle]

Most people just don't get how odd it would be for shakespeare and bacon to be alive at the same time on the same island. I don't think they understand bacon enough. All those hints of Seneca...aphorisms....philosophy...transcendental esoteric productions....drama...wisdom...state craft.... I dunno

[@zantlozantlom4752]

Thank you for your interesting ideas on how to handle the authorship question. You may want to contact Jacob Roberts about his recent translation of the cipher codes in the Shakespeare funerary plaque, providing the most awaited PRIMARY SOURCE MATERIAL FOR WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE. He has a book about it and is completing another book. My mother was a Shakespearean scholar with a PHD in Drama (her dissertation on Rosiland, "As You Like It") from New York University in the 1980s, who died last year at the age of 87, and I inherited her library. At the end, I asked her who wrote Shakespeare, and she responded quite adamantly that William Shakespeare most cerrtainly wrote it. I have been interested in the mystery of Oak Island, Nova Scotia, since I was a child. Norwegian researcher, Petter Amundsen, as an early guest on the show ("The Curse of Oak Island" by the History Channel, which annoying at times,) presented a remarkable case for Bacon as Shakespeare. I initially dismissed it, because although I have Norwegian ancestry, I wanted it to be the Templars who hid the alleged treasure more than 100 feet below ground. Over the subsequent years, his theory expanded into books I read and a movie I watched on KZbin. His theory includes deciphering of the works of Shakespeare and work on the plague. But it wasn't until Jacob Roberts' decryption, showing step by step how it was done, that I accepted Bacon as the true author. The revelations made proved incredible! It turns out that Bacon himself created the plaque, and in it, he answers many of the questions with truths that 400 years of scolarly speculation failed to get right. He was the son of a queen but not Elizabeth I, as most believed, but the legitimate son of Mary Queen of Scots and Francis II of France, who died around the time of his birth, making him the rightful King of France. Catherine de Medici tried to poison Francis and was most displeased that it failed to kill him. Mary begged her cousin, Elizabeth, to help her escape France. Elizabeth, worried about her own throne, agreed to have Mary return to Scotland but demanded that Francis be raised in England, under her watch, with her most learned Lady-in-waiting, Anne Bacon, and her Keeper of the Great Seal, Nicholas Bacon, acting as his parents. Francis would also have been the legitimate heir to the throne of England but chose to step aside for his half-brother, James. Bacon and his "brother" Anthony Bacon developed numerous aliases early on in their lives for spying, some of who you will be astounded to learn, but included painters, Nicholas Hilliard and others, and engravers. They had a group who worked on many writings with Bacon at the lead. Roberts has more to tell us in his next book, however he has a KZbin (Ghosts of Bacon) channel that is a group interested in Oak Island where he discusses many things he has not yet published. You will be interested to know that he has stated there that he had evidence that Christopher Marlowe was an alias of Sir Walter Ralegh, part of his group. I did some internet research on Marlowe and his famous portrait from Cambridge. I commented that I found something was most irregular with regards to it. Roberts said he could prove it was false. Alan Green, in his Bardcast 11, clearly shows, with decoded ciphers, that Marlowe's death was falsified. Francis Bacon, Anthony Bacon, and Ralegh (twice, also as Marlowe) had "philosophical" deaths, as did so many others in their circle. I sincerely hope this adds something useful to your investigation of Marlowe and Shakespeare.